Cauliflower Pesto Soup

Cauliflower Pesto Soup (page 210)
served with a simple green salad and creamy Italian dressing, and whole-wheat cheezy garlic dinner rolls.

So this was super duper yummy! It has great flavor and texture, and once again, it was totally easy. It's basically a matter of throwing ingredients in a pot, letting them simmer a bit, and then pureeing the results with the fresh basil.

Fun fact about this soup: there are only 50 calories per serving! I guess that's entirely possible, since it's based on cauliflower, which is a naturally low calorie food. So, theoretically, you could eat the entire pot of soup for only 200 calories. That's a lot of soup.

The final product was not quite as intensely green as I had expected, but it was still a nice, light and appealing green color. The toasted pine nuts were a nice finishing touch. Another fun fact: Bulk pine nuts at my neighborhood H-E-B cost $27 per pound! It's a good thing you only need a couple of tablespoons for this recipe.

The girls were a fan of this soup also. To round out the meal, I made a simple green salad and quick whole-wheat cheezy garlic dinner rolls.

So far, one of the most valuable takeaways for me from Appetite for Reduction has been the amazing nature of cashew-based creamy dressings. For tonight's salad, I whipped up a simple creamy Italian-like dressing, with cashews, water, a little red wine vinegar, onion, garlic, and Italian seasonings. Yum.

Anyone interested in my quick dinner roll recipe? We think they are really quite good, and they are the perfect addition to a soup and salad type meal. Also, they are about 100 calories per roll.

Mix together in a bowl:
2 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons yeast
1 1/2 cup warm water

It'll be a little sticky. There should be enough dough to fill a lightly greased standard muffin pan (12 pieces). Let rise for 20-30 minutes. If you like, lightly sprinkle the tops with more nutritional yeast or a mixture of vegan parmesan (1 tbsp) and paprika (1/4 tsp). Bake at 375F for 15-20 minutes. Yum!

Mediterranean Bowl

Mediterranean Bowl (page 267)
Bulgur, roasted cauliflower, chickpeas, and Caesar Chavez Dressing (page 43)

Another Bowl to Go! Except that I ate it at home.

I figured you can't go wrong with the Caesar Chavez Dressing here. Once I actually assembled the bowl, however, I realized this was going to be a very monotone meal, unless I did something about it. It was all varying shades of beige/cream. Mmmmmm. So I went out to the backyard garden, snipped a bit of fresh parsley and sprinkled it on the top. Better.

This was good, but as we were eating our dinner, we thought of a million ways to make it better. This is supposed to be a Mediterranean bowl, right? How about some Mediterranean-type ingredients, beyond the chickpeas and bulgur? Like olives! Chopped tomatoes! Thinly sliced fresh basil leaves! An extra squeeze of lemon!

I was also missing my leafy greens with my dinner, so I thought maybe a big serving of baby spinach would be a smart addition here, too. But then, I suppose it might be more like a salad than a "bowl"... so maybe big salad to go with the bowl, to keep the integrity of the "bowl" concept.

Anyway, I'd certainly make this one again, but I'd also dress it up a more.

Sanctuary Chef Salad

Sanctuary Chef Salad, page 28

I have been simultaneously looking forward to and avoiding making this salad. It sounded so good, but the prospect of preparing all the individual components seemed like a lot of hassle. I wondered, would it be worth it?

I'm happy to report: it is SO worth it. By the time we sat down to dinner, I was kind of tired and irritable about all the dirty dishes, and skeptical about the pay out for all the hassle. But with the very first bite, my taste buds said, "Oh, yeah!" and each bite after that got even better.

So let me break it down for you here. First, I whipped up the Sanctuary Dressing (you know, because "ranches are not nice places for cows"):

Sanctuary Dressing, page 29

Very tasty. The kids liked it, too, even though they never really liked regular ranch dressing. El Hombre asked, "How did you do that?" I only had soft silken tofu on hand in the pantry, so I used that instead of the extra-firm. It was fine.

Then we have the Eggplant Bacon:

Eggplant Bacon, page 42

You can see that a few pieces got a little burnt, but it was all good. Man, I love that stuff.

Here we have the Basic Baked Tofu...

Basic Baked Tofu, page 144

... which is perfect for a salad like this. Then there is the Herb-Roasted Cauliflower:

Herb-Roasted Cauliflower, page 108

The cauliflower was really, really tasty. SweetPotato especially enjoyed it. I did notice an error in the recipe, however... the instructions said to "drizzle in the oil" and mix it into the breadcrumb and herb mixture, but there is no oil listed in the ingredients. I went ahead and made it without any oil, which is what I would have done anyway, and it turned out great.

And finally, all the other salad veggies:

Chopped Romaine, tomatoes, red onions, carrots, radishes, and bean sprouts

I couldn't find sunflower sprouts at my grocery store, and alfalfa sprouts didn't strike my fancy this week, so I went with bean sprouts. They were nice and crunchy.

Delicious. And filling. And definitely worth the hassle. Bless El Hombre... he did all the dishes.

Upside-Down Lentil Shepherd's Pie

First, I want to say thank you to everyone who is stopping by for a visit here. This project is only two weeks old, and already I can feel your support. So, thank you!

Also, I wanted to give a little update on my progress in the weight-loss department. I'm down about 3 more pounds over the last two weeks. Yay me! Since the end of January, however, I've lost a total of about 13 pounds, so there's definitely a downward trend here.

I've been getting better at getting regular exercise and workouts in. I think I'm feeling a little more muscle tone here and there, and it's not my imagination. The dog and I are getting in some good walks together. I've been kicking my own butt doing cardio-strength drills with the Nike Training Club app. But food-wise, I need to focus a little more on Fuhrman's "basic skeleton plan" (fruit for breakfast, salad topped with beans for lunch, and more salad plus cooked vegetables along with the cup of whole grains/starchy vegetable for dinner), and make sure I'm fitting the AFR recipes into that framework, as much as possible. And I just need to remember to be patient with myself. It'll happen; I'll reach my goals.

But now, onto the recipe of the day:

Upside-Down Lentil Shepherd's Pie, pg 117

Isa, you win: I ate the mushrooms, and I liked it.

I mentioned already that I'm not really a fan of mushrooms, but somehow this worked for me. Was it the variety (shitake - not cheap, by the way)? Was it the way they were chopped up (pretty small - I was scared of ending up with big chunks)? Or was it the delicious combination of the other vegetables, spices, and seasonings (the Worcestershire here definitely gave it that "somethin' somethin'"), lusciously ladled over the cauliflower mashed potatoes?

I don't know. But I liked it, and I'd eat this again. Even with the mushrooms. Who am I?!??

2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma

2nd Avenue Vegetable Korma, with chickpeas
and brown basmati rice

Another delicious dish from AFR - and this one was so easy, too! Quick and simple to make at the end of a busy day, with flavorful and satisfying results. The most difficult part of the entire recipe was chopping up the vegetables, and that wasn't hard at all. I swapped out half of the cauliflower for some broccoli, and added some chickpeas to bulk this up for a main dish.

Vegetable korma is a type of Indian stew of vegetables in a mild, creamy curry sauce. This sauce had just the right balance of creaminess, spice, and sweetness. For me, there was just enough heat to warm things up without overpowering all the fab flavor. El Hombre went ahead and christened his plate with some extra red chili flakes and cumin, but he has asbestos mouth and likes to sweat when he eats.

There are leftovers in the refrigerator - I look forward to having more of this with lunch tomorrow!

Chickpea Piccata, Cauliflower Mashed Pototoes (Caulipots), and Romaine Lettuce with Caesar Chavez Dressing

Chickpea Piccata (pg 115) served over Cauliflower Mashed Potatoes (Caulipots) (pg 54)
on top of a bed of arugula and baby spinach leaves
In the left-side background - romaine lettuce leaves with Caesar Chavez Dressing (pg 43)

After a long, busy weekend during which I fell off the wagon a bit, diet-wise, I made up for it tonight with a dinner using three, count 'em: three!, recipes from AFR. And let me tell you - this was a FANTASTIC meal, with rave reviews all around!

But first, a bit about life since dinner last Wednesday night...

On Thursday, the girls and I went to our weekly homeschool co-op meeting, during which we had our end-of-the-month potluck lunch. My dear friend Paula made these amazing Lebanese stuffed grape leaves, and I could. not. stop. eating them. Also, one of the other moms made cupcakes to celebrate March birthdays, which were very thoughtfully vegan (for our family) and gluten-free (for another family). How could I turn down one of these cupcakes?

On Friday, our family attended another potluck, this one hosted by Rip Esselstyn, author of The Engine 2 Diet. While all the food there was plant-strong and oil-free, it was also quite delicious, and I'm sure I ate too much. In addition, someone brought these gigantic chocolate-chip banana muffins, and I ate one of those, too. The whole thing. It was really good. But, beyond the food, it was a really fun event, and we got to meet lots of new people. A highlight was meeting Natala from Vegan Hope. She is such an inspiration!

On Saturday, El Hombre and SweetPotato got up early to make chocolate-chip banana muffins for breakfast, inspired, obviously, by the delicious muffins at the previous night's potluck. Saturday's breakfast muffins were smaller than those at the potluck, but ultra-delicious, and of course, I ate more than one.

And finally, on Sunday, we spent the day adventuring around town and thrift-store treasure hunting. We stopped for lunch at Counter Culture, on Natala's recommendation, and thoroughly enjoyed everything we ate. I had the Jackfruit BBQ sandwich, El Hombre had the Tempeh Reuben, SweetPea had the Philly Seitan sandwich (a big sandwich, for her!), and SweetPotato had the Almond Butter & Apple sandwich. And then, because obviously we had been food-deprived all weekend (um, not really), we sampled the desserts - the raw brownie bites, the donut holes, and the lime-basil cheezecake. Wow!

But back to tonight's dinner...

First, the Chickpea Piccata: I've been trying to make this dish for almost a week now, but someone kept drinking the cooking wine I purchased especially for this recipe! More than one bottle mysteriously emptied while I wasn't looking. I'm not naming names, but I have my suspicions. El Hombre claims it must be the cat's fault, but that doesn't sound right to me. Anyway. One of SweetPea's all-time favorite dishes is seitan piccata, which, while delicious, is not exactly low-fat or plant-strong. So, we were both excited to try this dish. She decided the chickpea piccata is equally as delicious as the seitan version, and even went back for a second helping, along with the cauliflower mashed potatoes.

Which brings me to the Caulipots, or cauliflower mashed potatoes: I was a little wary of this recipe, since I've made mashed cauliflower before and didn't really enjoy it very much. I suppose, then, I was expecting mashed cauliflower to be like mashed potatoes. It's not. But! When you combine mashed cauliflower WITH mashed potatoes, it's like magic! I couldn't really tell the cauliflower was there; it was pretty much like eating just mashed potatoes. And who doesn't love mashed potatoes?!?

And finally, the Caesar Chavez Dressing: Holymoly!!! Amazing! Devine! SO GOOD!!!! Words are not adequate to describe how delicious this salad dressing is. I wished my tongue was long enough to lick the inside of the blender jar. I'm so excited to have more of this on my salad at lunch time tomorrow.

All-in-all, this whole dinner was a winner. Raves all around, from every member of the family. Date-dinner- or dinner-party-worthy. I will be making this again, and again, and again, for sure!

Want the recipe for the Chickpea Piccata? You can get it here, but why not just get your own copy of the book with all 125 rocking recipes, while you're at it? You won't regret it.